Microsoft-Activision-Blizzard Discussion Thread |OT4| - Dawn of the Final Day, Deal is done!

[Andodalf]

This move makes it more expensive to offer ACTIBLIZZ games on Cloud.

Congrats UK, you made things worse for everyone except Ubisoft, who is not a company in your country. Great work

[Thebaconlife]

I feel like a lot of this is all part of getting gamepass on ps and Nintendo

[CallMeCraig]

@Ulster36thDiv

How can Microsoft pay for a license to an IP they own? They have basically agreed to sell the 3rd party distrution rights to Ubisoft for ABK games outside of the Xbox ecosystem.

Microsoft still own the right to put their ABK IPs on Xcloud via Gamepass Ultimate.

They sold the cloud streaming rights to Ubisoft and have to license/buy them back.

[Ulster36thDiv]

@Andodalf

Nope, that’s not what this is saying at all. They’re straight up selling the rights to UBI for 15 years, and are having to lease them back from them during that time

Xbox wont develop PS5 versions of some games, the only way they’ll be on PS5 is if Ubi is allowed to put a non PS streaming service on the PS ecosystem which has about a snowballs chance in hell

ABK games will not be exclusive to the Xbox ecosystem. They will still be on Microsofts Xcloud streaming service.

Ubisoft have the right to finance 3rd party versions of ABK games to offer them to other platforms.

[ShinMegamiTenseiX]

Thank god starfield is coming out soon so we can put this utter garbage in the back boner

MS know what theyre doing. If it closes in october it closes in october.

At this point i dont give a shit.

[ShinMegamiTenseiX]

@Ulster36thDiv

ABK games will not be exclusive to the Xbox ecosystem. They will still be on Microsofts Xcloud streaming service.

Ubisoft have the right to finance 3rd party versions of ABK games to offer them to other platforms.

Through cloud only.

[Daniel]

@Thebaconlife

So no activision. Exclusives for Xbox then?

No exclusives for Xbox for 15 years assuming Sony will allow Ubisoft streaming on PS, we know MS signed a deal with Sony for 10 years anyway so nothing will happen till after that when it comes to native games.

After 15 years Microsoft can do whatever they want at that point with all games that are released after the 15 year wait. In theory Call of Duty in 2039 could be exclusive to Xbox and xCloud if I’m understanding it correctly.

Ubisoft will have the streaming rights for every single ABK game from the beginning of the company right up til 2038, forever. This is pretty much gonna secure a shit ton of content for Ubisoft and whoever wants to pay for that access.

Also after all this it makes Stadia leaving even more funny.

[Ulster36thDiv]

@ShinMegamiTenseiX

Through cloud only.

Yes via cloud only.

[Dom]

Ubisoft has a market cap of 4 billion, I can see MS just acquiring them in a couple of years. At the end of the day, this only has to do with streaming rights, I don’t care about those that much as long as I can play all the games locally on Game Pass.

[ShinMegamiTenseiX]

@Ulster36thDiv

Yes via cloud only.

So yeah. This wont effect anything until cloud becomes more popular.

[leburn98]

@Andodalf

Nope, that’s not what this is saying at all. They’re straight up selling the rights to UBI for 15 years, and are having to lease them back from them during that time

Xbox wont develop PS5 versions of some games, the only way they’ll be on PS5 is if Ubi is allowed to put a non PS streaming service on the PS ecosystem which has about a snowballs chance in hell

That’s not entirely true. As part of the agreement, Microsoft is required (for a fee) to provide ports for cloud providers who use non-Windows based operating systems. While we have yet to have the full details, this could apply to something like Sony’s current cloud streaming platform which utilizes PS5 hardware. PS5 has it’s own operating system (I think it’s FreeBSD based).

Regardless, it’s highly unlikely that Ubisoft or Sony would pay the fee to get a streaming-only version made.

[Daniel]

Inb4 Microsoft gets around cloud streaming by beefing up console streaming heh

[KageMaru]

@howlingmosquito

Thats only really applicable to another massive IP like CoD. GTA or Fortnite are two examples. The CMA would have to explain to everyone how they have no issues with CoD being exclusive on consoles, but they would with Sonic or Monster Hunter, despite massive revenue differences.

And the FTC outright failed. Microsoft can buy almost anyone at this point.

But COD isn’t going to be exclusive and I think MS would have a hard time making games like Sonic and Monster Hunter exclusive considering how both IPs have more history on other platforms. IF MS purchases Sega, I highly doubt anything will be exclusive.

And none of that accounts for the other issues or benefits to targeting studios versus another publisher.

[Ulster36thDiv]

@ShinMegamiTenseiX

So yeah. This wont effect anything until cloud becomes more popular.

Yep, which is the CMAs beef. Cloud potentially taking a massive place for accessing gaming and Microsoft having a monopoly, just like they did with Windows, as personal computing exploded.

[Andodalf]

@Ulster36thDiv

ABK games will not be exclusive to the Xbox ecosystem. They will still be on Microsofts Xcloud streaming service.

Ubisoft have the right to finance 3rd party versions of ABK games to offer them to other platforms.

??? noooooo, these distribution rights in no way give them any ability to develop new versions of a game

[howlingmosquito (mosquito)]

@KageMaru

But COD isn’t going to be exclusive

For 10 years. After that, probably not.

@KageMaru

I think MS would have a hard time making games like Sonic and Monster Hunter exclusive considering how both IPs have more history on other platforms. IF MS purchases Sega, I highly doubt anything will be exclusive.

Nah, fuck em. If I can’t play Fairgame$ I don’t see why Playstation should get Yakuza.

[nrXic]

I don’t think we need any more proof that Microsoft believes in Xbox and in videogames.

[Daniel]

@nrXic

I don’t think we need any more proof that Microsoft believes in Xbox and in videogames.

Would be very worrying if they dropped the deal entirely without fighting than giving up some cloud rights for 15 years.

[howlingmosquito (mosquito)]

@nrXic

I don’t think we need any more proof that Microsoft believes in Xbox and in videogames.

Oh just wait. Jez will have an article the day Microsoft confirms Blizzards Odyssey is Xbox exclusive saying otherwise.

[Ulster36thDiv]

@Andodalf

??? noooooo, these distribution rights in no way give them any ability to develop new versions of a game

They can finance 3rd party versions of games made by ABK and distribute them via a streaming service, ie COD2024 is made for Windows and Xbox… Ubisoft can finance a version made for Nintendo Switch and put it on Ubisoft plus on Nintendos ecosystem.